The Woman in Cabin 10 Book Review

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

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Blurb:

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

Review by Brittany:

I recently joined Book of the Month and this was one of the options. I have been on a bit of a mystery/thriller kick, so this sounded suspenseful enough to fulfill my reading need.

My favorite thing about this book is how unreliable the narrator seems. Lo is, from the very beginning of the book, kind of a mess. She's drunkenly burgled, which causes her issues with sleeping and ultimately puts her on edge. She drinks often throughout the book, and it is also revealed that she is on anti-depressants. She is not the most believable of characters, so when she claims that a woman has been murdered on the cruise ship, the other passengers are hard-pressed to believe her.

Her one possible ally is Ben, an ex of hers who is on the ship as well, but she gets so tangled up in trying to find "whodunnit" that she can't even trust him anymore. Everyone seems shady and deceitful, and this just adds to the unreliability of Lo.

The story line itself gets a bit crazy by the end. Lo often thinks that it's too crazy to be believable, and as a reader I had a similar feeling. It's far-fetched, but just enough so that it kept me turning pages and eager to find out what was going to happen next. Honestly, is there anything scarier than being trapped at sea with a killer?

This one is definitely worth picking up for those who are fans of suspenseful thrillers. Lo's slow unraveling of the mystery (and a bit of her sanity) kept me hooked and reading all day, until I had devoured the very last page.